PlantFiles: Mazari Palm
Nannorrhops ritchiana

I bought 3 liners and they are growing like crazy. I'll post pics soon. If I can figure that out.

Cold hardiness appears to be overrated.
Froze to the ground at 16F in a 3-day freeze
after attaining a 4 ft trunk. Respouting now.

I must have had over 50 of these, none has survived here in Roanoke VA, I tried many different growing situations, different soils, varied watering. Nothing works !

It is also native to pakistan.A huge forest of this palm is in the Pakistan near Afghanistan Border.

This is a weird palm, and a possible candidate for the worlds hardiest palm. It will grow fine if you have a hot summer, and there are even specimens of this palm surviving Spokane Washington, which is comparable with the midwest. In areas such as Seattle, it will survive, but grow slowly with putting out one frond every two years, unless you find a way to make the summers hotter, which is actually happening in the area the past two years. Maybe it will be a permanent trend?

Native to Afghanistan, this palm seems to really tolerate the full spectrum of extreme termperatures, from as cold as 0deg.F and as hot as >120deg.F. This palm produces multiple trunks.

This is the only plant of interest I can think of that's native to Afghanistan.

THis is on paper one of the most versatile palms in terms of variety of climates in which it will survive. It is a native of the middle east, where it somehow makes it on almost no water, blazing heat and snowy cold, intense winds and shrapnel abuse. This is a very attractive palm when tended to, having silvery blue leaves (some forms have sea green leaves to almost 'ordinary' green coloration). It is a suckering as well as a branching palm, and monocarpic (so after flower, that particular stalk dies... but the palm survives). I have seen this palm withstand 125F heat without a problem, and snow. It grows great in tropical Florida, and here in the So Cal deserts.

However, despite its potential claim as one of the hardiest of all the palms, it has its limitations, one which is it likes to die for no known reason. First of all, I have found that as a seedling It is a bit touchy and can be difficult to keep from rotting before it's fully established. It is a difficult plant to transplant young, too, and often tailspins once the roots are disturbed. Secondly, it can survive extreme cold as an older plant IF it stays relatively dry... snows in the middle east and subfreezing temperatures while humidity is near zero are no problems for it... but very cold temps far above zero farenhiet in humid climates tend to do it in. Rhapidophyllum has nothing to fear from this species in its claim as the hardiest of all palms!

Note: it is quite hardy in terms of fire... seems to even stimulate rapid and healthy growth to have itself defoliate by flames.